Conference Schedule

Instructional Innovation Award Competition Finalist Presentations
Time: Monday, Nov. 21st, 2011, 8:00-9:30AM 
Session Facilitator: Karen E. Papke-Shields (Salisbury University) 

The four finalists in the Instructional Innovation Award Competition will present their papers as part of the competition. These finalists were selected by a panel of judges based on the written submission. The award will be announced at the President's Lunch. 

Improving Students’ Writing Competency through Online Writing Groups/Studios
Jamison V. Kovach (University of Houston), Michelle Miley (University of Houston), Miguel Ramos (Universtity of Houston)

Communication skills contribute to success in the workplace. Unfortunately, people often have trouble expressing their ideas in writing. This research investigates the impact of online writing studios (i.e., peer feedback groups) on students’ writing competency. Results show that students who participated in online writing studios performed better on the final written assignment for a course and improved their perceptions about the writing process compared to students who did not.

Incorporating SCOR Scholar Training and Certification into Supply Chain Management Curricula: An Exploratory Study of Suitability and Approach
Scott C. Ellis (University of Kentucky)

SCOR Scholar training and certification promotes the understanding and application of the SCOR model which integrates supply chain processes, metrics, best practices, and improvement methodologies into a holistic conceptual framework. Though widely adopted, the utility of the SCOR model as a pedagogical instrument remains relatively unexplored. This study addresses the suitability, method, and utility of providing SCOR Scholar training and certification within supply chain management curricula.

Expeditionary Learning in Information Systems: Definition, Implementation, and Assessment 
Alan S. Abrahams (Virginia Tech)

Expeditionary learning – where students collaboratively discover, catalogue, and compare rapidly evolving information system specimens – is an innovative and effective approach for learners in the IS field. Our results indicate that learning by expedition has a strong, positive community impact and compares favorably to conventional experiential and service learning styles.

Introducing Geographic Information Systems in the Business School Curriculum with Business Analyst Desktop 
David Bradbard (Winthrop University), Dr. Barbara Fuller (Winthrop University)

This paper describes a teaching module that uses Business Analyst (BA) Desktop to develop a marketing strategy for a retail store where GIS technologies are used for managerial decision making. Students must manage geographic data for managerial decision making and produce maps, reports, and marketing strategy recommendations based on their analyses.

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Call for Participants

Recognizing outstanding contributions that advance instructional approaches within the decision sciences

Co-Sponsored by Alpha Iota Delta, Prentice Hall, and DSI

The advancement and promotion of innovative teaching and pedagogy in the decision sciences are key elements of the mission of the Decision Sciences Institute. At the President’s Luncheon during the 2011 Annual Meeting, the 33nd presentation of this prestigious award, co-sponsored by Alpha Iota Delta (the national honorary in the decision sciences), Prentice Hall, and the Institute, will be made.

The Instructional Innovation Award is presented to recognize outstanding creative instructional approaches within the decision sciences. Its focus is innovation in college or university-level teaching, either quantitative systems and/or behavioral methodology in its own right, or within or across functional/disciplinary areas such as finance, marketing, management information systems, operations, and human resources.

The award brings national recognition for the winner’s institution and a cash prize of $1,500 to be split among the authors of the winning submission. Authors of each of the remaining finalist entries share $750. Author(s) of the finalists will be requested to submit a revised version of their papers for possible publication in the Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education.

Please do not resubmit previous finalist entries. Submissions not selected for the final round of the competition will be considered for presentation in a regular session associated with the conference’s Innovative Education track. Therefore, competition participants should not submit a condensed version of their submission to a regular track.

All submissions must adhere to the following guidelines and must be received no later than April 1, 2011.

Instructions

Applications must be submitted in electronic form using instructions on the DSI website.

A tentative summary of instructions appears below; however, applicants should consult the website instructions before submitting. Submissions will consist of one document electronically submitted using the conference website, and one supplemental letter sent via U.S. mail or e-mail.

Electronic Submission Notes

1. Number of documents and their format: The electronic submission must consist of one document, in PDF format, completely contained in one file. Graphics and images may be integrated into this one document, but no separate or attached files of any kind are permitted. No audio, video, or other multimedia of any form can be included. Nothing may be separately submitted by any other means, including disks, videotapes, notebooks, etc. Further information about maximum file size, etc. can be found on the electronic submission form.

2. Anonymity: Include no applicant names, school names, websites, or other identifying information in your document. This information is captured separately on the electronic submission form. Applicants not adhering to this policy will be ineligible for consideration.

Document Format

Competition finalists will closely adhere to these format requirements. These requirements are very similar to those of the empirical manuscripts published in the Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education (DSJIE). Please check earlier issues of DSJIE before writing your manuscript. You may also want to consult the website of www.nsf.gov under Research and Evaluation of Education in Sciences and Engineering (REESE) and Course, Curriculum, and Laboratory Improvement (CCLI) in developing your paper. AACSB stresses the use of outcomes assessment and these guidelines also parallel this type of outcome assessment.

1. Length: Your one electronically submitted document can be no more than 30 total pages when formatted for printing.

2. Title Page: On the first page, provide the title of the submission and a table of contents. Number all pages in your submission in the upper right-hand corner.

3. Abstract/ Innovation Summary: On the second page, explain why your submission provides a new innovative approach to teaching. This will be the same as the abstract to be entered separately on the electronic submission form. In the first round of reviews, the abstract/ innovation summary will be used to narrow down the list of entries. Therefore, it is critical that you spend sufficient time drafting an excellent abstract/ innovation summary.

4. Detail Section: Present a double-spaced document that details your submission, with the following headings:

a.   Introduction:

• Topic or Problem toward which your approach is focused.
• Level of students toward which your approach is focused.
• Number of students with whom the approach has been used.
• Major educational objectives of your approach.
• Research hypothesis being tested using your approach
• Innovative and unique features of your approach.
• Summary of other sections of the manuscript

b. Literature Review: A thorough literature review to show how your approach relates to those that have been already published in DSJIE and other journals.

c.   Research Model & Hypothesis: Describe the research model and hypothesis proposed by your approach. Indicate why you focused your innovative efforts on this material or content.

d. Organization & Implementation: Explain how you structured the material or content, unique features of your approach, and how your approach contributes to student learning. Discuss how you designed the explanation and illustration of the material or content, what is unique about your approach, and how its use makes learning more effective. All papers should have an evaluation plan that includes both a strategy for monitoring the project as it evolves to provide feedback to guide these efforts (formative evaluation) and a strategy for evaluating the effectiveness of the project in achieving its goals and for identifying positive and negative findings when the project is completed (summative evaluation).

e.   Effectiveness and specific benefits of your approach to the learning process: Indicate how your major educational objectives were met, benefits derived from the presentation, students’ reactions to the presentation, and the results of the evaluation of the effectiveness or benefits derived. It is essential to include measures of the success of the approach, which may include, but should not be limited to, instructor or course evaluations.

f.   Transferability, Implications for Educators, Future Research, and Conclusions: Explain how this innovation could be used by other institutions, professors, or courses. Conclude your paper with specific recommendations to other educators and topics for future research.

g. References listed as per APA style guide.

You may include in appendices:

a.   Experiential exercises, handouts, etc. (if any), that are part of your innovative approach and explain where they fit in your approach.

b.  Any other discussion or material that you feel is essential to an understanding of your submission.

c. Copies of illustrative material, especially any that you have developed, and a copy of the most recent course syllabus (with identifying information deleted) in which the innovative activity was used.

The total length of your electronically submitted document, including appendices, must not exceed 30 pages. The text must be double-spaced, using 11-12 point characters, and a minimum of one-inch margins.

Supplemental Letter

In addition to the document submitted electronically, send a scanned letter via e-mail to the competition coordinator (address and e-mail given below) from your department chair, head, or dean attesting to the submission’s authenticity.

Evaluation

The materials will be evaluated by the Institute’s Innovative Education Committee. All submissions will be blind reviewed. Therefore, it is important that all references to the author(s) and institutional affiliation are entered only on the electronic submission form and do not appear anywhere in the submitted document itself.

The submissions will be evaluated in two phases. All submissions will be evaluated for (1) content, (2) literature review, (3) organization and presentation to students, (4) transferability to other institutions, professors, courses, etc., (5) evaluation of the effectiveness of the presentation, and (6) innovation. Consideration will be given to the clarity of the presentation of the innovative features of the submission and the demonstrated effect it has had. Phase 2 will be the finalists’ presentation at the annual meeting. Both the written submission and presentation will be considered in the final voting for the award.

All applicants, including the finalists, will be notified by June 15, 2011.

Finalists must attend the Instructional Innovation Award Session at the annual meeting in Boston to be eligible to win. At that session, each finalist will: (1) present a review or summary of the submission, (2) conduct an in-depth presentation or a discussion of a specific component of the submission (selected by the finalist), and (3) respond to questions from the audience. You don’t have to constrain your presentation to use of slides alone. Please strive to use an effective method of presenting your instructional innovation so that the audiences are able to understand the significance of your contribution in a limited time period.

This session has two purposes: to provide an avenue for the Institute’s members to see and discuss innovative approaches to education which could be used in their classes, and to enable the authors of the innovative packages to “bring their approaches to life” and add another dimension to the evaluation process.

The Committee invites your participation in this competition to recognize excellence in innovative instruction.

Please remember that all submissions must be received by April 1, 2011.

See past winners including several award-winning submissions.

Instructional Innovation Award Competition Coordinator
Karen Papke-Shields, Professor
Department of Information Systems and Decision Sciences
Perdue School of Business, 1101 Camden Avenue
Salisbury University
Salisbury, MD 21801
kepapke-shields@salisbury.edu
(410) 543-6419